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Description
Typical ecological terms of diet such as herbivory and carnivory are largely without meaning on the corpse-isle of R'lyeh; conventional flora in the form of fungi and plant life are scarce, supplanted by photosynthetic sessile metazoans in a manner similar to undersea reefs, forests and prairies of crimson and violet flesh. Therefore terms of autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic organisms are considered more appropriate when discussing the place of R'lyehian endemics within the food webs.

Xenotherians are an exclusively heterotrophic group, but clearly there is a major difference between those that simply browse upon the great fields of meat grass and those which hunt and kill motile prey for survival. As such, these are distinguished as either grazing heterotrophs, or predaceous heterotrophs. The pictured species represent the five most fearsome predaceous xenotherians upon the rotting acropolis, all of which occupy the highest trophic level upon the corpse-isle, and all of which present a serious threat to any human visitors within the island interior.

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DEMOHOUND: One of the principle predaceous heterotrophs of R'lyeh, being omnipresent throughout its numerous different ecozones. A quadrupedal pack-hunter that reaches around thirty-two kilograms in weight, they can overwhelm larger or faster prey animals with speed and numbers, hunting either in small family groups or (more rarely) large coalitions of numerous packs fused together. Their killing method is simple, but quite effective, using their combined weight to hold the victim down as they repeatedly rakes through its flesh with their toothed palps until it is dead (or no longer able to escape). However, their intelligence and planning amongst the pack during a hunt are likely their most vital skills that have allowed them to become probably the most successful predator of the isle.

BUGBEAR: One of the largest native motile species to the rotting acropolis (rivalling the aquatic slithery-dee in size), exceptionally large females can exceed thirteen feet in length and up to seven-hundred kilograms. A more primitive xenotherian species, it retains all six limbs for locomotion, still lays eggs, and its ability to change colour is rather unimpressive compared to some more advanced species, but all upon the corpse-isle fear its thunderous screams. A single swipe of its twenty-centimetre long claws can shear a man in half, and its thick hide can withstand most small-arms fire, but thankfully, it is not a particularly well-adapted hunter, actually preferring to graze upon low-growing planimals, or using its size to uproot and tear down trees to feed on the fronds, or even tear the entire planimal from its chitin-carbonate shell. It is the fiercely bad temper and brute strength of the animals which truly marks them among the greatest of R'lyehian terrors.

SABREBEAST: A specialized forest predator sometimes likened as a chimera of jaguar and chameleon, with all of the implications to its nature as an ambush predator this combination might suggest. Stalking amongst the lower boughs, its skin continuously changes hues to match the colours and patterns of light which filter through the canopy above, its gripping claws and semi-prehensile tail keeping it perfectly balanced. Its front pair of appendages have been adapted into short spike-like claws covered in a thick chitinous sheath and mounted on hydraulic joints which can spring to drive the claws down with great force and speed. The sabrebeast's diet consists primarily of the jungle-dwelling striders, killing them from above near-instantly by spiking its front claws into the primary brain. Unfortunately, the sabrebeast does not differentiate the upright, humanoid form of the striders to that of unrelated ape bipeds, and in that regard the sabrebeast is considered one of the most dangerous predators on R'lyeh, because it has coincidentally evolved to hunt the most dangerous prey.

WIVERN: The winged ruler of the steaming mountain range which rings the island, many a montane-dweller has met its end beneath the great shadow of the airborne carnivore. With a wingspan of up to fifteen feet across and weighing up to nineteen kilograms, the wivern is the mightiest beast to take to the skies, large enough to take even the clambering blister-beasts and megaspiders of the black cliffs, which it usually flings to a violent death by rapid vertical descent, although generally preferring smaller dracopterid species caught on the wing. Soaring between the peaks using the volcanic thermals and ambushing prey by hiding within the constant fog banks, wiverns are dreaded among R'lyehian mountaineers for their habit of pulling them off of cliffs and high ridges to their doom, attacking persistently and often in pairs, a common hunting tactic for tackling larger prey.

SEEKER: Beneath the dark star-lit nights upon the corpse-isle emerges a strange dracopterid hunter from their daytime roosts. The seeker is one of the few xenotherians which is nocturnal; being primarily visual animals, xenotherians rely strongly on sight to navigate and forage, a fact which is still true of the seeker, but they have developed more sophisticated senses to hunt in the darkness. Large organs behind its eyes which produce far-red bioluminescence; dim to humans and most diurnal xenotherians, but bright to their much larger and more complex eyes, allowing them to search out sleeping animals or unusual movements that may denote prey by sight alone, but still backed up by thermal nodes on its facial palps. Hunting parties of seekers scour the lowlands for anything that has not hidden itself in time for the nightly culling, dispatching prey with numerous venomous bites. With wingspans of up to ten feet and in flocks that may be dozens strong, there are few which are safe from their carnivorous raids.

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This is completely unrelated to kaiju stuff, just to be clear.

Description
Typical ecological terms of diet such as herbivory and carnivory are largely without meaning on the corpse-isle of R'lyeh; conventional flora in the form of fungi and plant life are scarce, supplanted by photosynthetic sessile metazoans in a manner similar to undersea reefs, forests and prairies of crimson and violet flesh. Therefore terms of autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic organisms are considered more appropriate when discussing the place of R'lyehian endemics within the food webs.

Xenotherians are an exclusively heterotrophic group, but clearly there is a major difference between those that simply browse upon the great fields of meat grass and those which hunt and kill motile prey for survival. As such, these are distinguished as either grazing heterotrophs, or predaceous heterotrophs. The pictured species represent the five most fearsome predaceous xenotherians upon the rotting acropolis, all of which occupy the highest trophic level upon the corpse-isle, and all of which present a serious threat to any human visitors within the island interior.

---

DEMOHOUND: One of the principle predaceous heterotrophs of R'lyeh, being omnipresent throughout its numerous different ecozones. A quadrupedal pack-hunter that reaches around thirty-two kilograms in weight, they can overwhelm larger or faster prey animals with speed and numbers, hunting either in small family groups or (more rarely) large coalitions of numerous packs fused together. Their killing method is simple, but quite effective, using their combined weight to hold the victim down as they repeatedly rakes through its flesh with their toothed palps until it is dead (or no longer able to escape). However, their intelligence and planning amongst the pack during a hunt are likely their most vital skills that have allowed them to become probably the most successful predator of the isle.

BUGBEAR: One of the largest native motile species to the rotting acropolis (rivalling the aquatic slithery-dee in size), exceptionally large females can exceed thirteen feet in length and up to seven-hundred kilograms. A more primitive xenotherian species, it retains all six limbs for locomotion, still lays eggs, and its ability to change colour is rather unimpressive compared to some more advanced species, but all upon the corpse-isle fear its thunderous screams. A single swipe of its twenty-centimetre long claws can shear a man in half, and its thick hide can withstand most small-arms fire, but thankfully, it is not a particularly well-adapted hunter, actually preferring to graze upon low-growing planimals, or using its size to uproot and tear down trees to feed on the fronds, or even tear the entire planimal from its chitin-carbonate shell. It is the fiercely bad temper and brute strength of the animals which truly marks them among the greatest of R'lyehian terrors.

SABREBEAST: A specialized forest predator sometimes likened as a chimera of jaguar and chameleon, with all of the implications to its nature as an ambush predator this combination might suggest. Stalking amongst the lower boughs, its skin continuously changes hues to match the colours and patterns of light which filter through the canopy above, its gripping claws and semi-prehensile tail keeping it perfectly balanced. Its front pair of appendages have been adapted into short spike-like claws covered in a thick chitinous sheath and mounted on hydraulic joints which can spring to drive the claws down with great force and speed. The sabrebeast's diet consists primarily of the jungle-dwelling striders, killing them from above near-instantly by spiking its front claws into the primary brain. Unfortunately, the sabrebeast does not differentiate the upright, humanoid form of the striders to that of unrelated ape bipeds, and in that regard the sabrebeast is considered one of the most dangerous predators on R'lyeh, because it has coincidentally evolved to hunt the most dangerous prey.

WIVERN: The winged ruler of the steaming mountain range which rings the island, many a montane-dweller has met its end beneath the great shadow of the airborne carnivore. With a wingspan of up to fifteen feet across and weighing up to nineteen kilograms, the wivern is the mightiest beast to take to the skies, large enough to take even the clambering blister-beasts and megaspiders of the black cliffs, which it usually flings to a violent death by rapid vertical descent, although generally preferring smaller dracopterid species caught on the wing. Soaring between the peaks using the volcanic thermals and ambushing prey by hiding within the constant fog banks, wiverns are dreaded among R'lyehian mountaineers for their habit of pulling them off of cliffs and high ridges to their doom, attacking persistently and often in pairs, a common hunting tactic for tackling larger prey.

SEEKER: Beneath the dark star-lit nights upon the corpse-isle emerges a strange dracopterid hunter from their daytime roosts. The seeker is one of the few xenotherians which is nocturnal; being primarily visual animals, xenotherians rely strongly on sight to navigate and forage, a fact which is still true of the seeker, but they have developed more sophisticated senses to hunt in the darkness. Large organs behind its eyes which produce far-red bioluminescence; dim to humans and most diurnal xenotherians, but bright to their much larger and more complex eyes, allowing them to search out sleeping animals or unusual movements that may denote prey by sight alone, but still backed up by thermal nodes on its facial palps. Hunting parties of seekers scour the lowlands for anything that has not hidden itself in time for the nightly culling, dispatching prey with numerous venomous bites. With wingspans of up to ten feet and in flocks that may be dozens strong, there are few which are safe from their carnivorous raids.

---

This is completely unrelated to kaiju stuff, just to be clear.